Roots of Ruin by Amber Mitchell is now out. Check out this post and start reading now with the excerpt.
Thank you Chapter by Chapter and Entangled Teen for having me!
Roots of Ruin by Amber Mitchell – Synopsis
- Roots of Ruin (Garden of Thorns #3) by Amber Mitchell
- Publication Date: August 16, 2021
- Publisher: Entangled Teen
They did the impossible, but their problems are far from over…
After freeing the Delmarion empire, Rose and Rayce must go to Varsha, the desert home Rose fled when she was a child—the country she’s meant to rule.
Rayce is the new emperor of Delmar, Varsha’s longtime enemy, but that won’t stop him from assisting the girl he loves. Armed with the brute force of Rayce’s military, Rose sets out to free her people from the oppressive rule of the usurper king who killed her father.
But even if they win, how can she be queen to her homeland and in love with the man ruling its bitter enemy? With her loyalties split between heart and crown, Rose must find a way to do the impossible again…unite two kingdoms at war, or sacrifice half of herself to save the other.
Excerpt
The man she is holding up wobbles on his feet, so I rush over to his other side and pull off my water canteen, offering it to him.
He reaches for it, but without a thumb, there is no way for him to grasp it. I pull the cap off and hold the canteen to his cracked lips. He drinks so deeply that water spills down his chin, wetting his tattered shirt, and he doesn’t pull away until the canteen is empty..
I lean down so that I’m at eye level with the battered man. “Please. Can you tell me what news you bring from Varsha?”
His round eyes struggle to focus on me, but when he finally does, he shakes his head as if confirming to himself that he must deliver the message he clearly sacrificed so much for.
“Yes,” he whispers, his voice raspy. “Yes, I can.” He looks from me to Darra. “I came as quickly as I could, but I’m afraid I haven’t left you much time. One of the loyalist camp locations has been discovered by the king and ransacked. Word is that a member has betrayed the cause, and because of this, there will be a mass execution.”
“A mole among the loyalists?”Darra says, sounding more outraged than curious.
He gives her a solemn nod.
As if things weren’t already bad enough, now my own people are turning against each other.A betrayal that will result in more death.
Darra turns from the man to me. “The loyalist are your supporters, princess. Ever since news spread to Varsha of your survival, people have been rising up to support your claim to the throne in any way they can. I’m afraid there aren’t enough numbers to outright challenge the king, but they have managed to be a thorn in his side.”
“And we’ve paid dearly for it,” the Varshan man says, holding up his bandaged hand. “The king ensures that any who are even suspected of being loyalist cannot raise a sword or weapon against him. Most are swiftly executed, and this will be the largest execution to have taken place so far.”
The air evaporates from my lungs as he speaks. These loyalists, people who I don’t even know, have been suffering in my name. How could I have stood still for so long, content to live an easy life here while my father’s people, while my people, have been persecuted? I always wondered how Rayce gained the courage to start the rebellion here in Delmar, and now I understand that it wasn’t courage at all. It was a calling in his soul that he could not deny. I know because I feel it too. Now I must take action.
“What’s your name?” I ask the man before me.
“My name? I’m Melek, Your Highness.”
“Well, Melek, thank you for your many sacrifices already.” I touch his shoulder gently, trying to give him a reassuring smile even though I don’t feel anything but fury and burning determination inside. “Can you tell me how many were captured?”
“Eighty-six,” he says, and the number weighs me down to the trampled ground like the blades of grass under my boot. “All the men, women, and children they found within the camp.”
My vision goes nearly white. Children. How many will die for a queen that hasn’t stepped foot in her own city since she was a child herself?
This can’t be. I won’t allow it. Not anymore. I stepped up when my sisters in the Garden needed me to free them, I rose up even against Rayce when the rebellion needed me, and I will move the very stars if it means saving these innocent people.
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http://www.chapter-by-chapter.com/tour-schedule-roots-of-ruin-by-amber-mitchell-presented-by-entangled-teen/
About the author:
Amber Mitchell was born and raised in a small town in Florida. After briefly escaping small town life by attending the University of South Florida where she earned her degree in Creative Writing, she decided to ditch traffic jams and move back to her hometown. There she writes Young Adult novels, usually with a bit of magic in them, rolls D20s with her friends on Thursday nights and enjoys hanging out with her husband and four cats.
Her other job involves crafting cardstock in to 3D art and has allowed her to travel all over the US vending at comic conventions which has only increased her love for fantasy and fandoms. She is represented by Nikki Terpilowski of Holloway Literature
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Other Books In the Series
After seven grueling years of captivity in the Garden—a burlesque troupe of slave girls—sixteen-year-old Rose finds an opportunity to escape during a performance for the emperor. But the hostage she randomly chose from the crowd to aid her isn’t one of the emperor’s men—not anymore. He’s the former heir to the throne, who is now leading a rebellion against it.
Rayce is a wanted man and dangerously charismatic, the worst person for Rose to get involved with, no matter what his smile promises. But he assumes Rose’s attempt to take him hostage is part of a plot to crush the rebellion, so he takes her as his hostage. Now Rose must prove where her loyalties lie, and she offers Rayce a deal—if he helps her rescue the other girls, she’ll tell him all the Garden’s secrets.
Except the one secret she’s kept for seven years that she’ll take to her grave if she must.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30118749-garden-of-thorns
Like flowers denied water, people are wilting under the emperor’s tyranny.
Rose will not rest until the Gardener is dead. But there are bigger battles to fight, and Rayce—leader of the rebellion and the only man Rose has ever loved—believes their best chance at winning the war is to join forces with her sworn enemy.
Saving innocent people is more important than her quest for revenge. But their new ally can’t be trusted—and he knows her darkest secret. One betrayal could leave the war and Rayce’s life hanging in the balance, and Rose will need to make the ultimate sacrifice to save them all.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37904177-war-of-the-wilted
